Father’s Day Novena
June 16, 2011 by admin
Filed under Blog, Faith, Fatherhood, manliness, Scriptural Examples, Virtue
It’s a little late for you to join in the prayers during this novena to St. Joseph, but I encourage you to visit the Father’s for Good site to view the reflections from several men about fatherhood and living as St. Joseph (the Foster Father of Jesus) lived. It’s great stuff and I’m glad to have been a part of it. Sorry it’s coming late… we were just out “Into the Wild” and had a great experience. For more information on Into the Wild, visit www.IntoTheWildWeekend.com.
This project was spurred on by the team at Maximus Group, a Catholic marketing firm who is promoting a new movie called Courageous that is coming out in September. I’ve pre-screened the movie and it is awesome. More on Courageous to come.
Listen to Mark Houck, Jesse Romero, Steve Pokorny, Bill & Billy Moyer, Chad Faddis and me as we share our thoughts on the great man-saint, St. Joseph. What a TrueMan!
Click HERE to go to the Fathers For Good website.
Joseph, of the line of David
Notice that Joseph carries both carpenter's tools and lilies in this picture. The lily is a sign of his purity as the Most Chaste Spouse. My daughter Lily is named after St. Joseph for that very reason.
“…Eliud, the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.”
Matthew Chapter 1 “The Genealogy of Jesus”.
Today (March 19) is the Feast of St. Joseph. St. Joseph was Jesus’ earthly foster father, the husband of Mary (Jesus’ mother) and a faithful Jewish man. We don’t know much about St. Joseph from Sacred Scripture, but we can deduce many things about his character, his demeanor and his effect on the world. For men, we should strive to be like St. Joseph – holy, upright, honest, hardworking and just. He was also a faithful man, a man of prayer and he allowed the Lord to work through his life. Can you imagine being selected by God to be the foster father of the Messiah? Obviously, Mary was selected as special by God to be the God-bearer (theotokos), why would God not also select a special man to be her husband and the protector of the God-bearer? He knew the role he was undertaking and accepted it whole-heartidly. He never failed to set the example of manliness for his son, Jesus. As we look to Christ to learn what He taught us, we must believe that He learned a great deal of what He knew from his earthly father, Joseph; therefore, telling us a great deal about Joseph.
As a father, I see characteristics in St. Joseph that I know I must possess. His example of virtue is second to none. In order to pass on faith, tradition and a legacy, I must first act out of love – setting the bar high for my children – so that my actions always precede my words and never contradict them. St. Joseph, the model for men – father, husband, man of faith and prayer, worker, protector, servant to the Lord. St. Joseph, pray for us.
Man up!
